The Next One Chosen
by A plus
Summary: After Harry's death, a prophecy is made that his child will have the power to defeat the Dark Lord.  Hermione discovers that she is pregnant with this child. Snape offers to protect her and raise the child as his own. Secrets from the past are discovered.
1. The Second Prophecy

_Why?_ Why was he doing this? The wind whipped through his black hair and he quickened his pace. His black robes billowed behind him as he repeated the question in his mind. Over and over. Why? He was putting himself in danger…from both sides. And for what? Ah, fuck it, it was the least he owed them. And curiosity, damn curiosity, he had to know.

Everyone thought that Harry would kill Voldemort, but of course it had ended up the other way around and now Harry was dead. Voldemort hadn't been completely successful though and Britain was now divided as well as the rest of Europe. There were Death Eater-controlled territories and Ministry-controlled territories. He had publicly sided with the Voldemort. It was safer for him, and this way he could remain in his position as a spy. Both sides were currently recovering, but he knew there would be war again. It might be years away still, but it would inevitably happen. Voldemort had made a surprising announcement at the meeting tonight. There had been another prophecy, this time from a more reliable source. It predicted that the only Wizard with strong enough power to defeat the Dark Lord would be in the blood line of the first chosen one who had died at his hand. The Death Eaters had been stumped, they had started looking into any wizarding relatives that Harry Potter might have had that were still living and they kept coming up with dead ends. They assumed he was too young to father a child. Severus, smiled to himself. His years as a teacher were finally paying off. Every year, at least one student at Hogwarts ended up pregnant. Stupid children. There were ways to hide it, ways to make it go away. No one outside of the staff had any idea how common it was. He had started to be able to predict the girls who would get themselves into trouble. He could pick them out years before it actually happened, with surprising accuracy. And if any girl had ever been at risk it was the Weasley girl. She had been possessed by Tom Riddle her first year, obviously drawn to dangerous, reckless men. She seemed to be with a new guy every week and he heard the whispered rumors of her promiscuity. He knew for a fact that she had at one point been involved with Harry. And of course, the Weaseleys weren't exactly known for their infertility. He smiled to himself, he had figured it out before anyone else and know he was going to warn the Order. It was only a matter of time before the Dark Lord figured this out as well. She was in danger.

He hesitated before opening the door. He knew the occupants on the other side would be less than happy to see him. But still, it was worth the risk.


	2. An Unexpected Turn of Events

He burst into the room and paused at the gasps and commotion he caused, holding up his wandless hands for all to see. Most of the people in the room had immediately drawn their wands and had them trained on him, while the remaining few were trying desperately to ensure that the others weren't going to do anything rash. So it seemed some knew the truth about why he had killed the headmaster and others either had been left in the dark or refused to believe it. In the arguing that ensued, he managed to glance around the room. He saw all the usual Order members and more red-haired heads than he could count, including the one he had come here for. 

The arguing ceased and the room fell silent, all eyes on him.

"There had been another prophecy." He said calmly, hesitating for effect, "that the only wizard powerful enough to defeat Voldemort would be in the blood line of Potter."

Mrs. Weaseley was the first to speak.

"That's impossible. Harry didn't have any children."

"Maybe not that have been born yet. Maybe he left a little something of himself behind." He said, suggestively raising an eyebrow.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Ginny. She took a step backwards from the accusing stares.

"I didn't. We didn't. I swear."

The group advanced on her.

"Come on Ginny, we just want to help you."

Still Ginny protested, "I didn't even see him until the final battle. He was off finding the horocruxes with Hermione. I didn't see him for months."

Severus looked up, past the Order members towards where Hermione has been standing only minutes before. The spot was empty. As the Weasleys and other Order members continued to grill Ginny on the physical relationship between her and the late Harry Potter, Severus slipped out of the room and into the hallway, closing the door softly behind him. The girl stood in the hallway, eyes closed with her head back, leaning her body against the wall for support. She was breathing heavily, bordering on hyperventilating. He moved closer to her until he was standing directly in front of her. He wasn't even sure she had heard him enter the hall when all of a sudden her eyes snapped open, staring directly into his. He had never seen this look in her eyes, this look of fear.

"How do I know?" she barely whispered

"I can perform a spell…"

She closed her eyes again and gave a small nod.

He took another step towards her, lifted her shirt and placed his cool hand against her warm stomach. He started muttering the incantation, but she wasn't paying attention. Her thoughts were swirling around her. The only thing that was keeping her sane, keeping her tied to this world was the cold hand on her stomach. He finished the spell and a small jolt of electricity shot through her body. Her eyes flew open.

"You felt something?" he asked her very seriously.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

He couldn't bring himself to say anything, but the look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

In the other room, the group had finally caught on that there was no way that Ginny could be pregnant and had come to the only logical conclusion. The door swung open and then all spilled out into the hall. Snape still had his hand on Hermione's bare stomach and they were staring intensely into each other's eyes.

"What do I do?" she asked softly, still staring at him as if there was no one else in the room.

"You can't run. That's the first thing he will be looking for. You must hide in plain sight. You must offer another father for the child to hide the identity of the real father."

Ron pushed though the crowd of bodies until he reached the area where Snape and Hermione were standing.

"I'll do it Hermione. I'll marry you and we'll pretend it's mine and we'll raise Harry's child together and…"

"and when the child comes out without red hair, more than a few eyebrows will be raised," Snape interrupted, "You need to pick a man who physically could convincingly be the father of Potter's child."

"Are you offering?" she asked timidly.

"Yes."

There were quite a few gasps in the room.

This was not how he had planned on the night going when he had stepped into the building. He had planned on finding out if the Weasley girl was pregnant and then leaving the Order to their feeble attempt to protect her. He figured a half-Potter, half-red-headed-idiot child had no chance of survival. But with Granger as its mother, this child had a chance. With Granger's intelligence and Potter's power and connection to the Dark Lord….this child might just be able to do it. Yes, he had planned on leaving quickly, but something forced him to continue.

"The child could convincingly look like mine. I could marry you and we could raise the child together. I have the knowledge to teach both you and the child what you will need to know to survive. And if everything else fails…I will protect you both."

She stared at him for a minute while everyone else in the hallway remained silent.

"I have some questions" she said hesitantly.

"Of couse you do," she could see the small smile on his lips, "perhaps we should discuss them somewhere more private." He started off down the hall to the library. She followed. Ron broke free from the crowd, following the two of them halfway down the hallway.

"Hermione! I love you. Don't you love me?"

She swallowed and turned slowly to face him. Severus stopped walking, but did not turn around.

"Ron," she said slowly, "If I loved you, I wouldn't have fucked Harry, would I?"

Severus didn't need to turn around to be able to picture the look of shock and devastation that would be on the boy's face right now. He smiled to himself and held the library door open as Hermione entered. "

"And if you did love him?" he asked her as she cast a silencing spell on the room.

"I still would have chosen you." She said softly, as if realizing something about herself for the first time, "You are the logical choice."

He nodded his head in the same way he would do in his class when one of the students gave the answer he was looking for. Some men, most men, would want love, want passion. He was not one of these men. He wanted a wife who was capable of making these important choices based on logic, not emotion. This girl standing in front of him was a woman who could do this. He had always seen this potential in her, but the emotions were still too powerful, she was still a girl. It had taken a war, it had taken this situation, to strip away these emotions from her, to leave her only with what she did best, logic. It was her tool for survival. Most women upon hearing they were carrying their dead best friend's unborn child would have broken down, would have gotten hysterical. She had simply asked him what she should do. It had not been a rhetorical question, she had immediately set about figuring out a course of action. As soon as he had heard her question, he had known that this was the woman he wanted as a wife.

They sat down into facing armchairs. She let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. He raised his eyebrow at her, waiting for her to begin.

"Did you kill Albus Dumbledore?"

"Yes."

A moment of silence.

"He asked me to. He was dying already."

She nodded.

It was his turn.

"Did you love him?" The "him" remained unspoken, but she knew he was referring to Harry.

"Yes, but not in that way. I loved him as a friend."

"So the sex…it was purely physical?" He had to know, this could complicate things.

"No, it was emotional, just not the right emotions. We were scared, frustrated, alone. We were being hunted, the world was falling down around us. Everyone was depending on us and we were running into dead ends at every turn. We were alone in the forest for months at a time with no news of the people we cared about and plenty of time to imagine the worst. It was something we both needed…to feel less scared, less alone. We did it to stay sane. I needed him, he needed me, but we did not love each other in the same way that two people should. We both knew that once everything was back to normal…if it ever did, that we would both pretend as if it had never happened."

She seemed lost in her thoughts for a moment, then suddenly took a deep breath and focused on the subject at hand.

"You will treat the child as your own." She started firmly.

"Yes," he replied, "but you will treat it as mine as well. I will not be forced to care for it as it is mine only to have you pull your status as its real mother anytime a questions comes up about how it is to be raised."

She thought for a moment.

"Yes, that's fair."

There was another moment of silence.

"From your behavior as a teacher…would you treat your own child like that?"

"No, no, of course not."

"Why do you want to do this? What is in this for you?"

"If this child is our only chance….it needs to be protected."

"What else?"

"Isn't that enough?"

"Not to you."

He remained silent, staring into the fire. This was his chance. She already expected him to be selfish, he could ask for something now.

"I wish to have a child of my own….in a few years, when this one is older."

"And you wish me to be the mother?"

"Yes."

"Then you are aware that the child could possibly end up an insufferable little know-it-all just like me."

"That's what I'm counting on," he said, allowing himself to smile for the first time.

He continued.

"We were both raised only children. Speaking for myself, it would have been nice to have someone, a sibling, to not have been so alone. Two children would be….a family."

They both stared into the fire, lost in their thoughts for a moment.

It was him who broke the silence.

"There are some things you should know."

She looked up at him, but he continued to gaze into the fire.

"I am a Death Eater. I will have duties that I must perform, times I must be gone. You cannot ask me not to. You cannot ask me to tell you everything. There are social events you will be asked to attend as well. My position will hopefully protect us both in the event that the Dark is victorious. I will have to get permission for the marriage from my master. I am reasonably confident that he will grant it. I will need to let him see my memory of the child being conceived."

He watched her nod out of the corner or his eye, giving him the strength to go on.

"It is a marriage of convenience, but it is still a marriage. I will be faithful and I expect the same from you."

Her eyes grew wide. She had not considered this.

"I will not force myself on you, but if you have needs, I ask that I be the man to fulfill them."

Something about his tone assured her that he would be able to fulfill those needs.

"I am a Gryfindor," she said to him as if to challenge him, "loyalty is what we do best."

He nodded and reached down into his shirt. He pulled out a small piece of metal that hung on a chain around his neck, wandlessly transfigured it into an engagement ring and slipped it on her finger.

They appeared in the hallway where everyone had been waiting. The crowd fell silent, no one wanting to ask the obvious question. Ron took a step forward towards Hermione who in response slid her hand into Severus'.

"This isn't what Harry would have wanted," Ron said coldly, "This isn't who he would have wanted to raise his child."

"Well then we're lucky he's not here to mess up the situation with his prejudices."

She nodded to him and they apparated, leaving a very confused Order behind in their wake.


	3. Faking Memories

She walked into the Leaky Cauldron nervously. This was their plan, the memory they were creating for the Dark Lord's satisfaction, the fake conception of her child. Memories could be altered and edited, but not completely faked. He would be waiting for her in there, and according to the plan he would be drunk. She went over the details once more in her mind. They had picked a slightly sleazy location, chosen to emphasize the past teacher-student relationship. The Dark Lord did like all things sordid after all. It was also vital that she say she was a virgin. She didn't notice him when she first entered. She found a few familiar faces, people who had been in her year at Hogwarts, and went over to their table. After a few minutes of catching up, she allowed her eyes to wander across the room, finally resting on a hooded figure in the shadows towards the back of the room seated at a table by himself, a half-empty bottle of firewhisky in front of him. Apparently the plan was being put into effect.

She took a few more sips of her juice before the slipped off down the dark hallway. She heard footsteps behind her and suddenly she was slammed into the wall. A body was pressed against hers and she felt his warm breath on her ear.

"Miss Granger. Such a pleasure to see you. You've grown up quite nicely"

She struggled against him. Even thought she knew he was just acting, it still slightly scared her, and also excited her.

He spun her around so that she was facing him, using his body to pin hers against the wall.

"Tell me. Did you ever have any teacher fantasies?"

"You're in the wrong part of town Snape, far from your Death Eater Safe Zone. All I have to do is scream and twenty wizards will be back here, all with wands pointed at your throat."

"But you won't."

"And why not?"

"Because you want it. Badly." His hand slipped up her skirt along her thigh.

She took a sharp breath as her body reacted to his. She had thought she would need to fake her reactions to him for the sake of the memory. She had no idea he would turn her on this much. His finger slipped into her and she saw a slight look of surprise of his face at her obvious wetness.

"So tight Miss Granger. Tell me, did Weasley ever manage to get in here."

"No," she breathed, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes.

"What about Potter?" He asked, leaning in closer to her.

Words left her and it was all she could manage to do to shake her head.

"Are you a virgin?" he asked, pushing into her further.

"Yes." She could feel his erection against her leg.

"I have a room upstairs."

"I want a Wizard's Oath that you will not harm me while I'm up there and that you will not prevent me from leaving once we're through."

He woke up in the morning and pulled a few vials of hangover potion out of his robes and swallowed them. He looked around his room in the Leaky Cauldron. She was gone. She had left immediately afterwards and apparated to his house while he had spent the night at the inn. Damn. He thought he had been drunk enough. He had meant to be drunk enough to have only hazy memories at best and he had felt that drunk. This had been not only to cover any inconsistent details under scrutiny of the Dark Lord, but also for his own sanity. He would be sharing a house with this woman, sleeping in the room next to hers. He had really not wanted to remember how it felt, but he did. Every touch. Every single goddamn touch. He groaned. It was time to go see the Dark Lord

Severus threw the doors open and listened to the echo they made. He was taking a risk, he was going to call the Dark Lord out on his bullshit, but it still might work.

"Severus, do you have something to report?"

"No, my Lord, this visit is of a more personal nature."

The Dark Lord looked at him curiously and all stray conversation between various groups of Death Eaters in the room immediately fell silent.

"A former student of mine with which I had…relations has recently come to me to let me know she is pregnant with my child. I wish to marry her. I seek your permission."

"Who is the woman?"

"Hermione Granger."

There were audible gasps in the room.

"Let me see."

He allowed the Dark Lord to see his memory of the fake conception of the child.

"She's in the Order."

"She has had a falling out with them. After Potter's death, she had no further connection to the Order."

"And the other obvious problem."

"She's a mudblood."

The Dark Lord remained silent so Severus continued.

"A word with you in private if you don't mind?"

The Dark Lord raised his eyebrows at this man's audacity, but granted his wish as he cleared the room. Severus spoke, then slightly held his breath. This could get him killed.

"I know of your parentage."

"Yes."

"You are a halfblood just as I am. Obvious you do not believe this Pureblood crap. In fact, I even believe that you feel the opposite. You feel that purebloods are weaker, dumber, easier to control. That's why you cater to their feelings of their superiority, so that they will follow you."

The Dark Lord did not deny any of this.

"Mudbloods are ok for mistresses, but not for wives. You should take a pureblood wife."

"Yes. And then we could have stupid children who would serve you mindlessly. You have enough drones. I won't be around forever. I am not immortal as you are. You need other intelligent, powerful followers who you can trust. She the most intelligent witch I have ever met. Her power is very, very strong. There is no doubt that our children would be a great asset to you."

"And you will raise them to follow me?"

"Yes, but not until they are 17."

"And your wife?"

"When the children have reached the age of 17, she will become your follower as well. Before that, she will need to devote her time to the children."

"Very well. Marry her. I just don't know how I'm going to explain this to all the damn purebloods."

"Simple. Tell them you don't want to pollute their precious pureblood bloodstream with a halfblood like me. This way is safer for everyone."

The Dark Lord actually chuckled at this.

"Go on Severus. I will explain the situation to the others."

She was waiting for him when he apparated back to his home. He wasn't sure how long he had been gone, but it had gotten dark out. Concern was evident on her face.

"He approved. We will get married tomorrow. I guess it's easier to just do it at the Ministry."

"Yes, I suppose you're right." She tried not to let the disappointment in her face show, but he caught a slight hint of it.


	4. Primal Oath

In the morning, Severus took Hermione to Grimmauld Place to get her things.

Hermione went to gather her things from her room while Severus waited downstairs. She tried her best to avoid everyone. She really didn't have the time or the energy to defend her decision. After all, she was getting married today. As she put the last of her things in her trunk, he heard the door to her room open and looked up into the cold stare of Ginny Weasley.

"How dare you. You SLUT. I though you were my friend. You KNEW I loved Harry. I'm glad you're leaving. We all are."

Hermione put her head down and continued place her last few belongings in the trunk.

"Not even going to defend yourself? Well, I hope you enjoy being the wife of a Death Eater. You betrayed my friendship and now you're going to betray the Order as well."

Hermione walked past the younger girl without a word and left the house. It was easier this way. The less contact she had with these people, the safer it would be for the child.

When they returned to Snape's house, he led her to her room. In most of the older wizard manors, the Prince Manor included, the husbands and wives had separate bedrooms. This was so that the husbands could entertain their mistresses without disturbing their wives sleep. However, the bedroom arrangement worked out quite well for Severus and Hermione's current situation. He left Hermione to unpack her things and get ready for their wedding. As she put her things away, she thought sadly about getting married at the Ministry. Sure, this was not a true marriage, but it just seemed to clinical, so impersonal. She wanted friends there, people she could trust, not just this cold man who she barely knew but was marrying.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by voices outside. She peered out the dusty window to see Severus walking up to the house with Kingsley Shaklebot and Minerva McGonnogal. A few minutes later, there was a knock at her door and Severus stepped inside.

"I thought you might prefer a ceremony on the grounds here. I found a few Order members who were not completely opposed to this union."

He opened the door wider for Minerva to enter the room.

"Kingsley and I will be waiting in the garden whenever you're ready."

Hermione ran over and hugged the woman as soon as the door was closed. She had never been so happy to see someone in her whole life.

"Thank you for coming. I need you here."

The older woman smiled and Hermione walked back over to the window.

"My dear, I know this is never how you pictured yourself getting married..."

"The truth is," Hermione mused, "That I never really pictured myself getting married. I know most girls imagine their weddings, but I never have. I don't think I thought I'd even ever get married."

Minerva gestured towards a simple white dress that hung from her arm.

"I brought this for you. You can charm it to fit or make any other alterations you see fit."

A few minutes later, the two woman walked side-by-side across the grounds. It was dusk and the sun was just beginning to set, casting long shadows across the grass. The two men waited in a small garden next to the lake. The garden was wild and natural, looking like it had been left to grow as it pleased for a hundred years. Hermione wore the simple white dress and sandals while Severus wore his traditional black robes. When she reached the place where he was standing, she turned to face him. Kingsley stood in front of them and it was clear that he would administer the ceremony. She expected him to launch into the same speech as she had seen at muggle weddings, but he didn't.

"Hermione, before we get started, there are a few things I must explain. I'm assuming since you were raised by muggles that you don't know the details of wizarding ceremonies?"

She nodded.

"Well, a wizard marriage is really not much more than a wizard oath. A long time ago, most wizard marriages were about property, wealth, power, or bloodlines. Love was not often a factor. Therefore the marriage vows stated exactly what each party was pledging to the marriage. This works quite well for your situation. We won't pretend this is anything other than what it is."

Hermione nodded again. This way was good. This felt like less of a lie to her. All three of them held out their wands. Kingsley muttered a few spells that she couldn't understand and nodded to Severus.

"I, Severus Tobias Snape, solemnly swear to house, teach, and protect this woman and her child until the Dark Lord Voldemort is defeated and to act as her husband until this time." There was a swirl of magic around his wand and Kingsley nodded again, this time to Hermione.

"I, Hermione Jane Granger, solemnly swear to act as wife to this man, to bear him a child, and to keep his secrets." There was a swirl of magic around her wand and a set of matching wedding rings appeared on their fingers. They nodded to each other. This was not a "kiss the bride and live happily ever after" muggle wedding. This was an oath, a practical oath that they had taken. It was an oath for protection. As four wizards walked to the house with the setting sun to their backs, Hermione couldn't help but wonder if wizards had taken these same oaths thousands of years ago. After all, romantic love was a fairly modern concept, but protection was ancient, was primal.


	5. Time Passes

Severus looked up as his pregnant wife walked into his study. The baby would be born in only a few months. She bit her lip as she stood there staring at him, saying nothing. Something was bothering her. It had been for weeks, but he hadn't asked about it. He figured that she would tell him when she was ready.

She took a deep breath.

"Are there ways, magical ways, that Voldemort might be able to find the child?"

So this was what had been bothering her.

"Yes."

"Is there a counter-spell?"

"Yes. It is very complex, but I will perform it once the child is born. It will hide the child until the age of 17. We will need to make sure that the child is ready to kill Voldemort by that point."

She nodded slowly and left the room. Most parents raised their children to be able to recognize danger and stay away from it. This would not be like that. This child had danger coming and all they could do was train it to be ready.

The child was born two months later. Fortunately for everyone involved, he had his mother's eyes. Molly came to deliver the baby, but left immediately afterwards, not saying very much to anyone. Apparently she had still not forgiven Hermione to what she had done to both of her children. They named the child Tobias, after Severus' father. Severus had hated his abusive muggle father, but using a family named helped to quell a certain amount of suspicion from outsiders. Severus performed the spell on the child just as he had promised, thus making the offspring of Harry Potter magically untraceable to Lord Voldemort for the next seventeen years.

Since Severus was no longer teaching at Hogwarts, he spent a fair amount of his time at home. Most of the time he worked on potions and other research for the Dark Lord in his labs. Hermione helped him and was soon able to make almost all of the potions herself. He had to admit, she had a real gift for it. Under his supervision, she also began to experiment with her own potions. She often assisted him with his research in the library as they took turns taking care of Tobias. As a team, they worked well together. Often Hermione would get up from her pages of notes mid-sentence to take over taking care of little Toby and Severus would continue the sentence she had left off. They worked interchangeably until one could not tell their work from the other. At night, after Toby went to bed, he taught her defensive spells and trained her to fight. Sometimes he would leave for weeks at a time to do the bidding of the Dark Lord, and she needed to be able to defend herself and the child.

Toby had been put to bed hours ago and they had been dueling for hours in the small ballroom. They both circled the room red and panting. The windows were fogged over from the heat of their exertions. She was exhausted, but not quitting. This was the closest she had ever come to beating him.

"Give up yet?" He taunted her, "It's getting late." She fired a curse at him.

"Late for you, old man."

"You know you're going to lose anyway, why not just quit and we can both get some sleep?"

"I thought you Death Eaters were supposed to be tough."

"We.."

"Expellaramus" and both wands were in her hand. She stood smirking at him.

"I'm going to lose, eh? You just wanted to quit and go to bed because you knew I'd win!" But his face didn't look like he had just lost and there was a feral glint in his eye. Suddenly both their wands were flung across the room and he was edging closer to her.

"Hey! We said no wandless magic."

"I'm a Slytherin, we don't play fair."

"You just don't like to lose."

"I don't."

She slowly moved away from him.

"So now I suppose you're going to use more wandless magic on your poor little defenseless wife?" Ah yes, playing the wife card.

In two moves he was on top of her and had her pinned to the ground. He leaned down further to whisper in her ear.

"There are tools other than magic."

They had been married a year and this was the closest they had been to touching one another. She had sexual urges, especially when he was around. He had mentioned when they first spoke of marriage that he would fulfill them for her, but she didn't exactly know how to bring up the subject. But the subject was here, now, and pressing against her small body, whispering in her ear. Unable to help himself, he began kissing the soft flesh down her neck and across her collarbone. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since that one night….that night before they were even married. He had held himself back, respecting her space, but now he was so close to her. Her hips arched up to rub against him and he groaned. She could feel how hard he was through his pants. He whispered again in her ear, "I told you before we were married that I would satisfy your needs. All you have to do is ask."

"Please."

"Come upstairs to my bedroom," he said, pushing himself off of her and standing up.

She gasped as the loss of contact and sat up.

"No," she said, "Too far. I need it now."

"You want me to take you here? On the ballroom floor?"

"Yes." She pulled her shirt over her head to expose her breasts. He needed no more convincing. He was back on top of her at once and thrusting into her. Then he carried her up to bed where he had his way with her some more. It was a long night, but it had been a year since either of them had had sex, so they both needed it.

She woke up in the morning still in his bed, still naked. She pushed the covers back and was just about to get up when a firm arm wrapped around her waist.

"How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted."

"Then we can't let it go that long again…without."

"No, we can't" She smiled at him.

"Come to my bed again tonight. Stay with me every night."


	6. A Late Night Visitor

Severus was off on assignment when there was a knock on the door late one night. Thoughts filled Hermione's mind of who it could be and what they could want. Severus had been training her every night, but would she be able defend off attackers all by herself? To her relief, it was just Remus Lupin at the door. She smiled as she opened it to let him in.

"Please, come in Remus. Would you like some Tea?"

"Yes please, Hermione. How is Tobias doing?"

"Oh, he's growing quickly. He's in bed now, but you should come by to see him sometime."

It was polite conversation. He was here on business.

"Severus isn't here, you know," she said as she brought the tea over to the table and filled their cups.

"Yes, yes, on assignment, I know."

"Yeah." She signed, "The second time this month."

"Oh?" A look of surprise passed over the man's face for a second, "He was called another time this month?"

"Yes, a few weeks ago." She stated hesitantly, wondering why Severus would not have informed the Order of this. She was involved only with his research and he kept most of his actually activities as a Death Eater and as a spy a secret, but she was under the impression that he reported all his actions to the Order.

"Do you know the nature of that assignment?" Lupin pressed her further. He sipped his tea and stared at the window, as if wanting to appear disinterested, but his tone betrayed his actions.

"No. We don't discuss that."

"How long was he gone that time?"

"Four days. More tea?"

"No thank you. About the last time.."

"Remus, I really don't know anything. Perhaps you should come back after Severus returns and discuss it with him."

"I came here tonight to talk to _you_."

"I don't think Severus would appreciate that," She said and began to stand up from the kitchen table when Lupin grabbed her arm firmly and kept her in her seat. She winced at the pain of his grip.

"No, I don't think he would."

Remus Lupin was an easy man to underestimate. His warm smile and humble persona were all that most people ever saw. But the fact remained that he was part werewolf and although he kept this part carefully hidden, every once in a while you could catch the hint of werewolf in his eye. Hermione had seen his fight and she was not fooled by his mild-mannered persona. She knew what he was capable of. Hermione sat back down, but fingered her wand in her pocket. This was not the time of night for polite conversation any longer.

"It's late Remus. I need to get to bed. Please just say whatever you came here to say."

"Hermione, I know you were never an official member of the Order, but you were a friend to it. You fought beside us once."

"I am raising a child who may be the Order's only hope, so please don't speak of this in past tense."

"Of course. I didn't mean to imply anything."

"Remus, please get to the point," she said, standing up from the table. He stood as well and took a step closer to her.

"We need you, the Order needs you, to let us know…if…you suspect anything."

She glared at him angrily.

"If I suspect _what_?"

"If you suspect there is anything that Severus isn't telling us."

"You come into MY house and accuse my husband of being a traitor?"

"I'm not accusing him of anything, we just want you to…"

"To spy on my husband."

They stood for a second facing each other.

"Get out," she said softly, looking away from him.

"Hermione, I…." But her wand was out now and pointed at him.

"Get _out_ of my house." There was a dangerous glint in her eye and he responded accordingly.

When she heard the door slam shut, she sat back down at the table. Her hands were trembling. She had respected this man, had trusted him. How could he ask her to spy on her own husband? Still, that wasn't why she was shaking. She was shaking because a little part of her, a tiny part wondered if maybe there wasn't something behind what he was saying. After all, what reason could her husband have for keeping something from the Order?


	7. The Book, The Spell, The Truth

She spotted the book she needed and climbed the small ladder to get it. The book next to it caught her eye. The simple silver lettering down the spine of the book read "Ancient Dark Arts". She loved all her husband's books, but some of these darker ones scared her, especially with a child around now. She pulled at the book she had come here for, but the shelf was jammed tight with books and it stuck for a moment. She pulled harder and the book gave way all at once, causing her almost to fall as the one beside it slipped off the shelf as well and came crashing to the floor. She sighed heavily and then started down the ladder to retrieve the fallen book. She was about to pick it up, when something on the page it had fallen open to caught her attention. "Protection Spells: Chapter1. Concealing A Child."

---

When Severus came home that night, he checked the kitchen, the study, and the living room, finding his wife in none of these places. He noticed a soft light coming from the library. As he entered, he saw a tuft of her hair peeking out from behind the back of an armchair. She was facing away from the door and towards the fire. The fire was low and the room was left in almost total darkness. He knew she had heard him enter the room, but she made no indication of it. He could hear her breathing. He knew she was mad. Usually when she got mad, she got herself all worked up, she crossed her arms, she yelled at him in a way he found irritating yet kind of cute. She never gave him the silent treatment. Standing there, looking across the library at her back, he actually felt afraid. This was an unprecedented level of anger. He had no idea what she was capable of. His mind raced through the possibilities of what this could be about. Now there are lots of things that a man can do to make his wife angry, but he was Severus Snape, he had done none of the normal things.

He approached her slowly, cautiously, not wanting to make things worse. When he was within a few steps of her, she jumped up and spun around to face him. He could see the anger now in her eyes. He had never seen her this angry, he didn't know she could _get_ this angry. She spoke the words slowly, coldly. He could see the amount of control it took just for her to reign in her anger enough to speak to him.

"You used _DARK MAGIC_ on our _CHILD_."

So _that's_ what this was all about. He should have known that she would find out eventually. He really should have known.

He then noticed her trunk on the floor to her side.

"Are you planning on leaving me?" he asked emotionlessly.

"Yes."

"Is there anything I can do to get you to stay?"

She held out a closed fist.

"You can tell me the truth."

His eyes traveled down to her fist which opened to reveal a small vial.

He had trained himself over the years to be able to resist Veritaserum. That was why he brewed his twice as strong, so no one would be able to resist it. He picked up the vial and turned it over to see the label. Damn, it was his own brew. She must have taken it from his lab. He grimaced to himself at the old joke about potions masters who were always were poisoned by their own creations. It just went to show you that being good at what you did just came back to bite you in the ass.

He drank it down in one gulp. Her eyes never left the vial.

She waited a second for his eyes to become glassy and then started.

"Are you loyal to the Order of the Phoenix?"

He closed his eyes. He had really hoped that she wouldn't ask this question.

"Not entirely."

He could feel her slipping away from him.

"The dark magic I used because it was the only way to hide him."

"That's not an excuse." Her voice was impossibly low, deadly.

He snapped. He was yelling now. He had never yelled at her before.

"What was I _supposed_ to do? There was no other spell. What kind of spells do you think deal with this kind of thing? What kind of magic do you think Lily used to save Harry?"

"WHAT?"

"The spell that Lily used to save her son is considered some very dark magic. A life in exchange for another one, that's pretty much as dark as it gets."

"But there was no spell, it was her love that saved him."

"That's how the story goes, isn't it? Poor little innocent Lily. She acted without thinking. She loved her baby so much and it was the Love that saved him. Isn't that the story.?"

"You're not suggesting…"

"She knew EXACTLY what she was doing."

"Lily was not involved in the Dark Arts" she said, without the conviction she had intended it to have.

"She was."

Hermione remained silent for a moment, processing everything that had just been said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I taught her the spell myself. It was not pure love that saved him, it was research, preparation, and lots of practice. It was planned far in advance."

"But Lily….Lily was an _Auror_."

"Yes, she was, but she stumbled upon the truth."

"The truth?"

He took a breath and waited for a few moments. He had meant to tell her eventually, he just hadn't thought it would be so soon.

"There is so much you don't know, so much that has been hidden from you, that has been hidden from everyone. Dark Magic isn't the evil that you're brought up to believe. In fact, it is just an older form of magic. Much of it was done without wands. Much of it is far more powerful than any form of magic currently practiced today. Much of it revolves around protection of the family, a primal need. Because it is so powerful, it was dangerous in the hands of less talented witches and wizards. You can only imagine the mistakes that were made and the lives that were lost because of it. The ministry decided that this magic was too powerful, too dangerous, and outlawed it. The persecuted anyone who practiced it, burned spell books, and tried to erase it completely from the memory of the society. They branded it as evil, thereby making anyone with an interest in it an evil wizard in the eyes of society. Unfortunately, without this knowledge, the wizarding world was left open to attack from wizards who secretly gained it, such as Voldemort. But still, the ministry refused and the cover-up was perpetuated and the dark arts remained hidden. Lily was killed to protect this secret."

Hermione shook her head

"You can't be saying that the ministry was behind Lily's murder."

"I think maybe it's best if I tell you the whole story…if I start from the beginning…

"It was a few years before Harry was born. I was a Death Eater. Tom had sent me on a mission, to find one of the wizarding communities that were rumored to exist far from civilization, far from the watchful eyes of the ministry, still practicing the old ways. I was to become integrated into one if I could and learn everything. Lily was an auror for the ministry as you know. Because of her past friendship with me, she was put on the team of aurors who were trying to track me. They figured that her knowledge of me could be a huge asset to the team. They watched my every move and tracked me like an animal. Lily was very good at her job, her partner was merely there to make sure she stayed out of trouble, to make sure that her past friendship with me didn't complicate things once she caught up to me. I had found one of the legendary hidden wizarding communities deep in a forest in Germany, but I had not yet been able to break the wards in order to access it. Lily and her partner caught up to me, took my wand, and bound me to a tree. During the night, a dragon attacked, killing her partner and gravely injuring Lily in the process. It was my chance to escape, but I couldn't leave her there in that condition. I tried my best to heal her, but the damage was pretty severe. We were spotted by some of the residents of the town I had been searching for. They took us in and healed Lily. They were amazing people and we were both intrigued by the magic they practiced.

"We lived together in that community for six months. It was the best six months of my life. The whole community fell in love with Lily. They taught us their ways and told us the truth of what the ministry had done to them. Lily was outraged that she had been lied to, and as an auror had been a part of this. She had believed in her job so strongly and now was questioning the very fundamental beliefs that she was required to hold in order to perform it. I too was questioning my beliefs. I had become a Death Eater because of my interest in the Dark Arts. I now saw that they were not being used as they had originally been intended. I saw that there was more to them than hate and destruction. It was here that I was taught Legimency and wandless magic. I kept my identity as a Death Eater secret from them. Lily was the only one who knew. I spoke with her of my problems with the ways of the Dark Lord and his followers. Our friendship returned to what it had been before I had taken the mark.

"I think we would have stayed in that perfect world forever if one day my mark hadn't been discovered. They saw me for what I was and even though I tried to convince them that I had renounced the Dark Lord, they threw me out, and Lily too, telling us never to return. We decided it was best if we both returned to our old roles for the timebeing, while we came up with a way to take down both Voldemort and the ministry, to let the truth be known. Lily returned to her husband and job as an auror and I returned to the service of the Dark Lord. She found that she could no longer carry out her duties as an auror without question as she had once done. She tried to explain all she had learned to James, but he refused to believe her. The final breaking point was the birth of her son. She refused to let him grow up in a world based on lies and deceptions. She started making plans to go public with her knowledge, when the ministry discovered her intention. I know it is unfounded, but I have always suspected that it was James who reported her to their superiors out of concern for her mental health. The ministry created the prophecy about her son, spreading it to Voldemort, assuring the wizard would come after Harry and that Lily would learn the consequences of her actions. After not seeing her for three years, she showed up at my house in the middle of the night, begging me for a spell that could save her son. There was a desperation in her eyes. I searched all the old bookstores until I found a book, and then taught her the spell. She disappeared into hiding and I never saw her again. It was her wish that if she and James were to die, that I would take Harry to the forest community and ask them to raise him. I tried to convince Dumbledore, but he refused, taking Harry to live with his horrible muggle aunt and uncle. The forest dwellers could have taught him what he needed to know to kill Voldemort. They start teaching magic when it first shows, not once the child turns eleven. Most of them grow up not even needing wands. By the time Harry arrived at Hogwarts, it was too late. I can't help wonder, if I had succeeded in changing Dumbledore's mind….if things might have turned out differently."

"And now you have another chance?"

"Yes."

She sunk down into the armchair she had been sitting in before he came in and buried her face in her hands. How could one conversation change everything she thought she knew?

"So sometimes you lie to the Order..."

"To prevent certain information from reaching the ministry."

"Were you planning on telling me all of this?"

"Yes, but not yet. I wanted to wait until Toby showed his first sign of magic. I want to try to find the forest community again. I want him raised there. They can teach him things that I can't teach him. They can prepare him in ways that I never could."

"What makes you think they'll take you back in?"

"It was one of theirs who made the second prophecy."

"Ok, we'll go as soon as he shows magic."

"So you're staying with me?"

"Obviously. But if you ever lie to me again..."

"I won't. Especially now that I know you've been in my veritaserum stores."

She smiled, a smile that contained endearment, mischievousness, and malice all at once.


End file.
